Friday, November 20, 2015

Going Into Orbit Over “The Martian”

As Thanksgiving approaches, the world’s engineers and space
scientists are expressing their gratitude for The Martian. This saga of a modern-day astronaut stranded on Mars
is an upbeat movie that makes space exploration look exciting, shot by a team
dedicated to ensuring on-screen scientific accuracy. I myself grew up in an era
when space travel was regarded as a thrilling adventure, and government
expenditure on space-going missions seemed like money well spent. It’s been far
too long since we cheered a man on the moon. As someone with close family ties
to Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Lab, which makes an important cameo in the film,
I’m personally thankful for anything that encourages voyages (manned or
unmanned) across the cosmos. Let’s keep those science nerd-types employed! And
while we’re doing that, let’s keep alive mankind’s dreams of exploring our universe

Though I’m rooting for The
Martian because of its whole-hearted endorsement of space science, I also
love this project because of what it says about the screenwriting process. I
teach in the screenwriting division of UCLA Extension’s world-renowned Writers’ Program, so I count among my students many teachers and doctors and airline
pilots who’re convinced they have what it take to make it to Hollywood. Most
won’t get very far, but it still remains possible for would-be writers,
whatever their day jobs, to hit the jackpot in the movie game.

Take the case of Andy Weir. He’s a mild-mannered software
engineer who grew up, as so many engineers do, enamored of science fiction.
He’s been writing stories since childhood, but his very first novel, The Martian, was truly the little
spacecraft that could. Weir researched the story intently—delving into such
arcane subjects as botany, orbital mechanics, and weather conditions on
Mars—and then, if Wikipedia is to be believed, offered it as a free serial on
his website. Once he turned it into a low-rent Kindle ebook, it was endorsed on
the Goodreads site, then discovered by Crown Books . . . and the rest is
publishing history.

But how did the 2011 novel become a 2015 Matt Damon movie,
directed by Ridley Scott? Personally, I’m less interested in the business
details than in the aesthetic challenges. Weir didn’t undertake the screenplay,
which was written by Hollywood veteran Drew Goddard. Part of Goddard’s task was
to explore the character of Mark Watney, who’s stranded on Mars when his
crewmates leave him behind during a crisis, thinking him dead. Alone on Mars,
without any initial way of communicating with earth, Mark does a great many
creative things to stay alive. In a movie, we can watch him in action, but we
can’t have access to his thought processes. The Mark of the novel keeps a
running log, which shows us the way his mind works, and also introduces us to
his vivid—sometimes profane, often very funny—voice. Movie audiences will never
be satisfied with constant voiceover, so Weir’s idea of a log has evolved in
the film into Mark’s series of video selfies, theoretically made for some
far-off posterity. Given how much hard science is being thrown at us, it helps
a lot to see Damon at his most brashly charming, spelling out his plans,
crowing over his small successes, and struggling to absorb fuck-ups.

There are other good additions in the screenplay, like a
deft characterization of an ultimate JPL space nerd who’s brilliant at solving
problems of astrophysics but hasn’t yet figured out how to behave appropriately
with actual human beings. And a new coda wraps up loose ends to give us a
satisfying version of happily-ever-after.

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About Me

As someone who has always been passionate about language, I prefer good conversation to, well, just about anything. And for me chatting about movies is a special treat. I’m convinced that movies can shape lives. On this topic I’ve got some great stories to tell, and I invite YOU to share your own. But because I’m a show biz survivor, I will also sometimes pull back the curtain to show you the inner workings of the film industry. Read, and enjoy!